Was The Prohibition Against Women Preachers Just A Cultural Matter ?

Some contend the New Testament prohibition against women preachers was just a first century cultural matter, but by this reasoning you could pretty much just throw out the whole New Testament, since all of it was written in the first century.

Remember that before there ever was any culture, God said in Genesis 3:16 the husband should “rule over” the wife. That law hadn’t changed as we get to Jesus’ day (Ephesians 5:22-24 – “the husband is the head of the wife”). Though culture had changed/developed immensely in those thousands of years, the same law continued – and still remains today.

Notice also that the Bible was not meant to regulate or dictate cultural matters:

· Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide the apostles “into all truth” (John 16:13), not etiquette.

· The Bible was not intended for just one period of time; instead, it was written to apply throughout the rest of earth history (I Peter 1:25 – “the word of the Lord endureth for ever”).

The Bible reason given for why a woman is not to “teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,” is not temporary or because of current culture; instead, it goes back to the beginning, the creation (I Timothy 2:13 – “For Adam was first formed, then Eve”). Since the facts of the creation haven’t changed, then neither has the reason for this regulation.

Just two verses after God revealed women shouldn’t “speak in the church,” he wrote “the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” (I Corinthians 14:37). So prohibition wasn’t culture; it was commandment. God wisely headed off the modern day culture argument.